Born in 1940 in Tokyo, Nobuyoshi Araki became world-famous as the narrator of provocative erotic photographs. From the 1960s onwards, Araki discovered a new style of “private” photography, making his own experience and relationships with other people and objects into a storyline. Chronicling every aspect of his own life, as well as exposing details from those of his friends, Araki’s ever-present camera occupies an ambivalent position, at once relatable and shocking. With his inherent irrepressible creative energy, Araki photographs dying people, collapsing buildings, fading flowers, and on the other hand, he makes portraits of young people, landscapes of Tokyo, women, and magnificent bouquets. Reality and fiction, Eros and Thanatos, coexist on equal terms in the art of the photographer. This harmonious connection of opposites is the very essence of photography, from Araki’s viewpoint. Araki received the annual award of the Photographic Society of Japan in 1990, which was followed by the domestic photography award at the Higashikawa International Photo Festival in 1991, the Austrian Decoration of Honor for Science and Arts in 2008 and the Mainichi Art Award in 2012. He has published more than 500 photobooks to date, and his work has been widely exhibited internationally, including major retrospectives at the Museum of Sex, New York, and the Musée Guimet, Paris. His work is included in the permanent collections of international institutions including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and Tate Modern, London.